Is this $200 toque worth the cost?

[A pricey new toque made of Merino wool, muskox wool and cashmere has become a hit online after selling out its first limited edition run. Photo: Frontier]

If you’re looking for an exorbitantly expensive way to keep your head warm this winter, Toronto design house Frontier has just the thing: a $200 toque.

Before you pass out from sticker shock, you’ve got to know that this ain’t your granddaddy’s plain, old tuque. According to Frontier, it’s been tested by ice sculptors, Zamboni drivers, butchers, and backcountry hikers, and was handcrafted by a Toronto “master knitter” from Merino wool, muskox wool and cashmere, and took 18 months of research and development to create.

So does all of this add up to a $200 value? Considering the hat’s first limited edition run of 100 toques has already sold out, the answer seems to be yes.

The hat comes from Toronto-based “creative exploration” company Frontier, and is “an exploration of Canadian history, material science, fabrication techniques, production processes, and economic systems” and “an argument against disposable fashion and for a return to craftsmanship in every sense.”

[Photo: Frontier]

An ambitious tuque, to be sure.

But if you think $200 buys you a choice of colours, think again. The Frontier toque comes in black with a red lining. Period. One of its biggest selling points is the layer of muskox wool, also known as Qiviuq, qiviut, or, in Inuktitut syllabics, ᕿᕕᐅᖅ. It’s special because it doesn’t shrink and is stronger than sheep’s wool but softer than cashmere.

And if muskox wool isn’t Canadian enough for you, the Toronto Star reports that the tuque also has a quote by Canadain philosopher and intellectual Marshall McLuhan on the inside brim. It reads: “The criminal, like the artist, is a social explorer.”

Visit Frontier’s online shop to get your name on the list for the next run of the most expensive — and perhaps most pretentious — toque in town.